REPORT: July 2, 2010 - Friday - 6pm

Today, I read this on nola.com (The Times Picayune, New Orleans) which was issued by NOAA:

A new computer model shows oil from the massive Gulf of Mexico spill has as high as an 80 percent chance of reaching the Florida Keys and Miami.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released the forecast Friday. It shows a 61 to 80 percent chance of sheen, tar balls or other oil remnants coming within 20 miles of Florida's eastern coast, from the Keys north to the Fort Lauderdale area, by on Aug. 18.

Outside those areas and the Florida Panhandle, which has already seen beaches littered with tar balls, other areas show a low probability of oil. The state's western coast has a 20 percent chance or lower of seeing oil, and parts of southwest Florida have less than a 1 percent chance.


As a follow-up, NPR reported a further explanation: that much depends on hurricanes and any unexpected changes in weather patterns (which we are having this year in particular); but that the data is in fact projecting the above scenario.

MID AUGUST. SYMPTOMS OF THE GULF OIL SPILL ON OR NEAR OUR BEACH AND NEARBY BEACHES. I keep thinking of the Loggerhead sea turtles who are in prime nesting season. Their hatchlings swimming out into the loop current where they spend their first year along the sargassum cradle that feeds and shelters them and all the big and little fish, snails, crabs and sea life. This is where the oil too may be pulled into. Even if it does stay out to sea and not make it onto Atlantic shores, I wonder if the results of the oil's presence will show up in the marine life that makes it back onto the coast?

Another comment to a report hits too close to home: "You can rebuild Louisiana; but you can't rebuild that reef out there." I stop reading.


And went to the beach...

And smiled when my son griped at me for taking too long to get in the water with him as he waited for me to shoot these photos.

Tonight just like every night, T. OCEAN and I will continue our good-night ritual which lately for me has become vested with hope of safe-keeping - more like a prayer. We say good night to the moon, the stars, the sun, the rain and clouds, the ocean, the dolphins, whales, birds, jellyfish, crabs, sea turtles, fish[es], trees, butterflies, dragonflies, bumblebees, grass, sand, sea shells, etc. - more or less the natural world which is part of our everyday language.

And of course, T. OCEAN usually adds his own - good night surfers, good night train tracks, good night beetles, good night sail boarding...if it's on his mind, he bids it good night.

It is a pleasant way to end the day, and hold onto the the wish that all will be cared for even as we sleep.


Your,
Little mama Sea Keeper

REPORT: July 1, 2010 - Thursday - 4pm

OBSERVED: fair - clean-ish (although I rounded up a bag full of trash - this time unexpected things like broken toys and a bazillion bottle caps)

COLLECTED: nothing


A late afternoon swim with T. OCEAN and C. LEV was relaxing and easy and very hot.


Your,
Little Mama Sea Keeper

REPORT: June 30, 2010 - Wednesday - 5pm

OBSERVED: fair - clean

COLLECTED: nothing


Today T. OCEAN and I met a Dad - JUSTIN - and his son - MILES - along the path to the beach preparing to pick up trash. "It's his idea" JUSTIN said, gesturing to his almost-five year old son. So, I asked MILES - what made you want to pick up the trash on the beach? His reply - "Well, I like the ocean; and I want to take care of it." It's kids like MILES who not only give me hope for the future, but amaze me that they 'get it' at the tender young age of four. How awesome!

The water was clear and warm with a light chop. The blue crane came back for his (or her...) evening supper. Down where T. OCEAN and I played, there was plenty of debris for me to still throw away. But this time, it was nice to know I had a like-minded child nearby doing the same thing.

With a looming storm coming out of the west, we had to leave sooner than T. OCEAN was ready. He cried the entire walk up to the showers, gnats swarming, and far-off charcoal clouds teasing but not yet producing any rain or lightning. We kept to our plan to go home, hoping tomorrow will continue to be kind so we may swim again.


Your,
Little Mama Sea Keeper

REPORT: June 29, 2010 - Tuesday - 7pm

OBSERVED: only beauty

COLLECTED: seashells


Stopping by my beach late evening after work, I make time for only what I can immediately focus on - to be present with my direct environment. I feel the warm sand surround and hug my feet; I breath the green and salty ocean air; I hear the tinkering of seashells knocking against one another as the slow evening current glides over them; I carefully collect my most favorite sea-gems, rinse them, and place them gently in my t-shirt; I walk back up to see the giant driftwood as it becomes more overgrown by the reeds and dunes that protect it.


Your,
Little Mama Sea Keeper

REPORT: June 26-28, 2010 - Fri-Sun - evenings

OBSERVED: a moderate to enormous amount of trash, all kinds; none of it, however, in the water. The close-up photo contains all pieces of plastics, different kinds - one tangled in with seaweed branches, one was shell-like, one was a rope pieces, etc. Arranged together, they looked surprisingly natural.

COLLECTED: nothing



Very recently, I have seen some strange and some funny things on our beach.


First, the curious, unsettling and bizarre...

- (Am I in Miami?)...A big black man in a tiny red and white speedo, and a partly top-less photo shoot with two young busty women and an old man taking place further up the beach.

- Picked up two bottles: one water bottle, one empty gallon jug that held a used needle. Perhaps a considerate junkie who then "forgot" to take the bottles to the trash?

- The two collections of snuffed-out cigarette butts so carefully exterminated that their smoking ends were pinched off and clean. There they were - right at the water's edge. I could easily imagine two people side-by-side in their metal folding chairs taking a break to watch the water or perhaps their child, and they chain-smoked through the whole thing, all while the tide was out. Then, finishing their conversation, they left their tidy souvenirs behind for the tide to come back in and take out and disperse (as it eventually will; only in this instance, I took them to the trash bin).

- And lastly there was the one from 2 weeks ago: walking up to my cousin and aunt sitting in one of the rented, wooden double-deck chairs, an umbrella opened over-head, and between them in the sand was a used Trojan (wrapper included). The only thing to properly do was what my aunt did - gracefully cover it with sand and continue with our conversation.


And for the funny...

Of course, it cam from my son, T. OCEAN. While walking down the sandy path to the shore, a youngish woman passed us by in what looked like a work-out swimsuit, bag flung over her shoulder, sunglasses on. She gave us a nice smile as she breezed past us. As we approached the beach's edge, I see that she has gone right up to the water, feet in the washed up waves, and is doing several yoga asanas facing out into the sea. T. OCEAN, knowing a few of them himself, begins to imitate her every move; only she has no idea he is doing this since he is behind her and out of sight. This goes on for quite some time, and the three older ladies in their beach chairs were watching the entire thing, giving me a 'thumbs-up' all the while. Unfortunately, my camera failed me, and an opportunity to capture a genuinely funny moment is now only in memory.


To the just plain cool...

Several weeks ago I noticed a new bird on our beach. It may be some kind of a crane. It's almost a bluish tint with beautiful white streaks across its cheeks and a white single plume behind its head. For the first time, it stayed long enough for me to notice it was hunting hermit crabs in the wet sand after the water pulled back out into the ocean. It did not seem to mind people around as long as it wasn't being chased. Mostly, it just wanted dinner.

Finally...even though the water was still comparatively choppy, it had calmed down enough to take T. OCEAN out past the shore break where the sand dips down and waves roll rather than fall. Holding him at my side, he kicks and kicks and kicks, and experiments with paddling his arms. We take turns doing this AND riding the long (and now more easy) shoreline - rolling and dipping and crashing into one another. It is two hours of pure fun, my swimsuit FILLED with sand.


Your,
Little Mama Sea Keeper

REPORT: June 25, 2010 - Friday - 6pm

OBSERVED: fair - clean; one soaring pelican, schools of small white fish

COLLECTED: seaweed, sand

The shore break was long again, this time filled with bits of seaweed churned to a pulp by three days of rough surf. I knew just looking at it that T. OCEAN would end up with bites. Within thirty minutes the backs of his legs were completely covered with welts; luckily, I remembered to bring the Sting Zapper ointment and applied it right away. He played up on the sand for a while longer, though insisted on making sure he HAD to stay out of the waves by asking here and there if he could go back in. No, I said. Perhaps tomorrow.

The water's edge looked like a pesto of watery seaweed; yet just a bit further out was perfectly clear and much calmer. Too deep for T. OCEAN though. And if I go, he'll follow me. Better to stay on shore.

There was some rubbish about, but not too bad - a bottle here, a cup there, the usual bits of plastic. An easy pick-up, and a short but sweet outing. Back again soon enough.


Your,
Little Mama Sea Keeper

REPORT: June 24, 2010 - Thursday - 4pm

OBSERVED: fair - clean

COLLECTED: plastic bottle cap, seaweed, sand, shell


Today's ocean was like yesterday's - heavy chop, strong shore break, hardly any seaweed either in or out of the water, and only a few pieces or trash. In fact, had I picked up yesterday's like I planned, there might not have been any today. Only a plastic water bottle (always water bottles...a strange irony in my opinion), a broken piece of foam cup, and 2 bottle caps. Not too bad, really.

Again, T. OCEAN and I played the "Slip-N-Slide" along the shoreline neck-deep in sea foam. Again, we were flanked by families who lost personal items trying to wield their bodies against the tidal blows. Glasses, goggles, and a swim trunk went flying never to return to them. Even we were out of luck this evening when a little yellow ball we had been tossing around in the waves went under only to be swallowed into the white froth. I generally feel pretty bad when this happens. Not because we can't replace it (like perhaps glasses or jewelry), but because we have inadvertently contributed to the ocean's pollution. It's not quite the same as the cigarette butts left by the thousands all over the sand. It's not that deliberate or apathetic. But it ain't great either.

We'll try again tomorrow as the currents should be calmer. Except we'll keep the next ball well above the tide line.


Your,
Little Mama Sea Keeper